Why Rosie Millard is flat broke

SHE is a famous name with a devoted husband, happy family and several homes. But Rosie Millard has revealed that she is £40,000 in debt and her bank account has been frozen.

The former BBC arts correspondent, who once almost fell out of her low-cut gown while reporting on the 2001 Oscars, admits she is one of a generation of 'impoverished professionals' who struggle to curtail their extravagant lifestyles.

Miss Millard, a 37-year-old mother of four, said that every penny she earns goes toward repaying mortgages and credit card bills which have reached their limit. The family have even put their four-year-old Skoda up for sale to raise cash.

Their financial problems started when Miss Millard quit the BBC in late 2003 after it introduced a policy of banning broadcasters from freelancing for newspapers and magazines unless it could vet their words.

Since then she has continued as a columnist for the Sunday Times. 'On paper my husband and I are known in polite parlance as 'comfortably off',' she wrote. 'In reality we have no money.

'Anything that comes into Chez Millard goes out pretty much immediately on debt repayment. That, and paying the nanny so we can both work for more debt repayment.

'Both our current accounts have been frozen. Welcome to the world of middle-class debt. There are plenty of us out there.'

When Miss Millard almost parted company with her £800 strapless Vivienne Westwood frock during the 2001 Oscars, her colleague Michael Buerk mischievously referred to her 'best supporting dress'.After she left the BBC, she and her TV producer husband Pip Clothier ploughed £698,000 into a dilapidated Georgian house in central London, only to see their £100,000 budget for repairs escalate to £250,000.

Nevertheless, they decided to invest further in property by purchasing two buy-to-let flats and a Paris apartment. The move proved far from successful but their real downfall, Miss Millard admitted, was the emergence of credit cards which offer to take on debts of up to £10,000 interest-free for the first few months.

'We signed up for four. Of course, we are not alone. Nearly everyone I know is playing the plastic game.

'As each interest-free period draws to a close, my husband and I spend a flurried few days furiously washing debt from all the old cards and finding new ones to plonk it on to.

'We have to be very careful not to leave the sum even a week over the limit for fear of monumental amounts of interest repayments.'

Despite this, Miss Millard says she cannot resist luxuries such as 'a decent haircut every eight weeks, Stila make-up and the New Yorker'. She added: 'There are people in our family with savings but they are all under the age of eight.'

Yesterday financial experts warned against people taking up more credit than they could afford to pay back.

Mark Maguire, a spokesman for internet bank Egg, said: 'These so-called impoverished professionals have emerged because we live in a 24-hour society where there are more opportunities for people to be exposed to attractive products through the internet and television.

'People see credit as enabling them to live the lifestyle they want to lead rather than spending years saving up as they did 50 years ago. People want to consume and consume now.

'There is nothing wrong with that as long as lenders make sure they can afford to repay their debt. Customers need to be given informed choices about what they spend on credit.'

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